I’d been dying to see the bull fights in Bogota ever since moving here. There are only a handful every January – early February. I kept putting it off until this year, when the animal rights opposition was at its highest. This time, for the first time, most bogotanos believed this would be the last year for corridas de toros in Bogota.

I first heard of the opposition to bullfighting on my Bogota Bike Tour with Mike Ceaser. There are protests outside the bullring for every fiesta brava. Police are needed to keep protesters separated from the stadium and fans. The protests have increasingly grown each year. From Mike’s latest articles on the bullfighting controversy:

Bogotá’s annual bullfighting season began this weekend, and with it the annual protests against the practice. The animal rights protesters, who call themselves anti-taurinos, were bolstered by new Mayor Gustavo Petro’s comments that Bogotá should consider banning bullfighting, and that the city would no longer provide financial support for it.

Bullfighting certainly is cruel, and the spectacle of people cheering an animal’s killing can’t be healthy. But bullfighting, known as La Fiesta Brava, does also involve skill, courage and tradition. More broadly, it seems to me that other, much crueler practices, such as cockfighting and factory farming, cause much more suffering to many more animals, but receive little attention.

Earlier this year, Bogotá’s new Mayor Gustavo Petro said that the city should consider banning bullfighting and other public spectacles which include killing. That could make this the last day ever of professional bullfighting in Colombia’s capital, although the fiesta brava will continue, for the time being, in Cali, Medellin, Manizales and other cities.

In my article on Petro’s mayoral victory I explained how Bogota is the liberal mecca of Colombia (like New York or Los Angeles in the States). If any Colombian city will ban bullfighting, it’ll be Bogota. And from what I know of paisas and costeños, greater Colombia won’t be banning bullfighting anytime soon.

The folks at the Santamaria Plaza, Bogotá’s bullfighting stadium, tell me that the city’s ordered them to stop selling tickets for next season of corridas. A long, but cruel and controversial, tradition may be at an end here. Mayor Gustavo Petro said months ago that the city should consider banning all public spectacles which involve the killing of animals.

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An end to bullfighting in La Santamaria would also be a heavy blow to the already-beleagured sport. It is the most important bullfighting stadium in South America, and Colombia is the third most important bullfighting nation, after Spain and Mexico.

Bullfighting Interests Fight Back (sort of)

When all this was heating up, I noticed these propaganda posters on city walls. They’re sponsored by bullfighting interests to promote awareness of how many jobs bullfighting creates. They feel it’s an important part of not just Colombian culture, but also the economy. It’s not a scholarly economic picture, as you can see a handful of jobs are replicated several times. The sponsors’ logos are on the right. The posters on Septima at 52 were torn down within days, so I got pics just in time.

Despite their wealthy clientele, the bullfighting interests seem to be losing.

My Opinion on Bullfights

Expat Chronicles is more likely to insult bleeding hearts and politically correct than validate them. So it should come as no surprise that I don’t really care about bulls’ rights. Nothing against bullscourse. It’s just that they’re going to die anyway. In building up the fights to my gringo buddies, I argued it was more humane given these options. Which would you prefer:

Be killed quickly in the slaughterhouse assembly line, meekly waiting your turn behind all your buddies and cousins and countrymen.

Enter the stadium to die like a gladiator, with the opportunity to take one of your oppressors with you. If you impress the spectators, there’s a chance you’ll be retired to a stud farm.

I’d take #2 every time!

My buddy Daniel told me he didn’t like bullfights because “the bull doesn’t have a chance.” Mike Ceaser has called it “an ugly sport.” Here’s the problem with those two analyses: (1) the bull’s not supposed to have a chance because (2) bullfighting is not a sport. I’ve never heard a Colombian refer to it as ‘deporte’. It’s a show, a performance.

I’d also argue that they DO have a chance, as seen here:

“Fuck with the bull, you get the horns.”

That’s Julio Aparicio Diaz, a Spanish bullfighter who may go down as the most famous of all just because of that image.

Aparicio fought this particular bull in his later years as a torero. He slipped while performing a pass. This is what happens if you slip during a pass.

There’s no shortage of YouTube videos showing bulls fucking dudes up in the bullring. Here’s one, another (Portuguese audience claps), another (face gored off), and another (bull gets into the crowd). So the bull may not have much of a chance, but he’s still a 1,000+ lb animal with horns in a ring with 150 lb Spaniards wearing tights. He has a chance.

My Day at the Corrida de Toros

Enough politics and controversy. Let’s get to the show!

I cycled down to the Plaza de Toros and bought four cheap tickets (but not the cheapest) in the SHADE for 96,000 pesos each. Joey, Mark, Paul (a guy The Mick said will be dead in a year), and I met at the liquor store on Cl 53 and Kr 13 for some early morning aguardiente. We put down a fifth of Antioqueño and some beers before going to my place, where we broke into this bitch:

We also broke into a few grams of ya-yo (not pictured). We were all lit up by the time we jumped in a taxi for the Plaza.

We were dropped off Northeast of the bullring, where we would never even lay eyes on the protest – something I was worried about since Colombian protests can turn extremely violent.

Instead, we passed through a gauntlet of independent vendors peddling bullfighting paraphernalia. Salesmen sell botas (leather boots to hold booze), seat cushions, ponchos, hats, snacks, horns, and more. I insisted on a bota as you can’t bring bottles in, and it’s tradition. An entire two liters of guaro (what we’d drank at my place was replaced with lemon juice) fit into one bota.

Paul bought everything he could get his hands on. He walked in wearing a poncho and paisa hat with the bota around his neck. He’d have passed for a paisa if he had dark hair.

We missed the beginning of the first fight. They don’t let people come and go from the seats as they wish – only between fights (so not good for snorting cocaine). We waited around mingling with the other late arrivals until the fight ended. It was an upscale affair. Several fans spoke Englihs. Paul and I wore clean dress shirts, as bullfighting calls for. Joey and Mark were in t-shirts, but gringos can get away with more than locals. Other groups’ botas were filled with wine or a mix of whiskey and wine. We were the only ones we met with guaro – and probably the only ones in the entire bullring with Nectar (middle class brand).

The first fight ended and we found our seats. As I predicted, seat cushions were unnecessary.

I’d read up a bit on bullfighting before the big day. One thing that always stuck out with me, besides all the varied versions, was the emphasis on “a quick and clean death” for the bull. This ran in direct contrast to what I’d seen on television, but I went in with an open mind. Even if it was a slow, agonizing death, I didn’t think it’d bother me.

However, the first fight did shock me. There is nothing quick and clean about it. It’s a long, drawn out, torturous death. I’m not against bullfighting, but I am against sugarcoating and bullshitting. So I’m telling it like it is – a torturous death. First, a few monosabios (the teasers) provoke the bull into sprinting around the ring a few times. The big strong bull makes it seem easy, but you try sprinting two laps around a huge bullring before you start fighting. The torero (gringos incorrectly use the Spanish word ‘matador‘ in English) has him do a few passes, then they make room for the picador.

The first picador on a heavily-protected horse comes out to stab the bull. The horse is completely protected with thick padding everywhere the bull could get him. They blindfold the padded horse, which makes no sense to me. It’s blindfolded, but completely protected with a jacket they may be able to stop bullets. This picador stabs the bull with a giant lance – the kind they used in knight jousts. Here are pics of the first picador on blindfolded, padded horse joust-stabbing a bull:

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After the joust-stabbing, the torero does some more passes, more teasing and provoking. He runs the bull some more.

Then it’s the bandilleros‘ turn. These guys stab the bull with long sticks with knives at the end of them. The tips of the knives are actually hooks that, once penetrated, open up and catch the bulls’ skin (leather / rawhide) so they don’t fall out. The bull continues with the knives stabbed inside him, plus sticks hanging from the wound.

The bandilleros demonstrate the most athleticism in bull-stabbing. While others do it from horseback or through trickery, the bandilleros rely on fleet of foot and vertical jump. They run up to the bull, jump up to stab him over his horns, and sprint away. It’s the closest thing to sport in the whole show.

Here are pictures of bandilleros:

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Then there are more passes from the torero, running the bull out of energy even more.

In some fights, there is a second picador. This picador is on horseback, but his horse is neither blindfolded nor protected. I can’t imagine the amount of training it takes to get a horse to get near that bull, and even dance in front of him. This video shows how incredibly disciplined the horses are:

So that picador stabs the bull a few more times. At this point, if the bull has been successfully stabbed by every bullfighter that made an attempt, he’ll have 8-10 wounds. The blood is visible on his coat – even if it’s black – and the dirt of the ring.

This is when the torero comes in to finish the job. He does several more passes, toying with the animal. Then, at the sound of the bugle, he raises his sword. When the bull goes after him this time, the torero jumps and plants the sword through the bull’s shoulder blades and into his heart. This is supposedly the “quick and clean death.”

The video below was the first bullfight I saw. I titled the video “Slow Death.” My buddies and I had convinced ourselves we didn’t care about animals. But after watching this death, everybody was silent and feeling a little guilty. It wasn’t a good performance for convincing people bullfighting is OK. NOT RECOMMENDED for faint of heart:

Note the torero had to give him two stabs in the heart with the sword. Then, some helpers had to stab him in the brain with a knife a few times, all the while the bull is coughing up blood with its tongue hanging out.

Also note the “¡PETRO!” catcalls from the audience, which flew for the whole show.

In another fight, the torero did his job so well the crowd solicited the powers at be to award him the bull’s ear. The crowd waves white handkerchiefs, and the judges (seated directly above us) decide whether the performance was worthy. If so, they wave their handkerchief and the torero gets the ear. Here’s a 30 sec video of the episode:

Here are pics of the torero making his rounds around the bullring, ear in hand, while being showered with approval, hats, and flowers.

After the bulls are killed, they’re loaded onto dollies and pulled out by horses. They weigh 1000 lbs, so it’d take true strongmen to pull it out by its legs.

I recorded an entire fight. It lasts twenty minutes, so it’s split into two YouTube videos:

Entire Fight Part 1

Entire Fight Part 2

Bullfighting Variants

What I’ve described is classic Spanish-style bullfighting, but there are other variants. The Wikipedia article for Bullfighting describes the Portuguese, French, Balkan, Indian, and Oman styles. The Balkan version is how it’s done in Arequipa, Peru, where I lived my first year in South America. Two bulls fight each other. There are no humans with weapons, and the bulls don’t die. I never saw a show but there’s plenty on YouTube. In many parts of Spain and Portugal where killing the animals has been outlawed, there are bloodless bullfights.

There’s also the famous Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain. Similar to the Running of the Bulls in the coastal regions of Colombia and Medellin is the corraleja. In a corraleja, a bull is let loose in a bullring for the drunk campesinos to play with. These morons line up to provoke and tease the bull before running away. Here’s a description of a corraleja in Sabaneta from a gringo buddy in Medellin, Zac:

There were 2 sections you could get in: the grandstands up above the action, or down below where the only thing between you and the action was some shittily nailed boards to posts. They’d keep getting knocked off and dudes with hammers would run around fixing shit all over. I thought wow, PETA would shit. There are kids up in the grandstands with silly string, and they shoot it all over the bulls. Dudes stabb them with little spears, just straight torture, I loved it. Who the fuck am I to pass judgement on another culture? I was up in the grandstands the first night, but the next day Justin and I sat down below, and you had to go through the mandatory “you get hurt its your own ass” disclosure. Both days I saw incredible acts of athleticism from some of the costeño dudes. Dudes pulling out like a wooden desk, 2 sitting on it and just waiting for the bull to come and cream ‘em, self regard completely out the window. After 6 liters of Aguila and a media of rum, I had to get in there my damn self. Outside of the arena was a huge, bierstube area and stage and it was a fucking drunken mess, bitches falling down, people puking in random places, just chaos. They didn’t have it this past year here, I hope the animal nuts didn’t ruin it.

He got a video 0n FB of some drunken paisa getting gored and trampled by a bull. Go to the Expat Chronicles FB page, the video was posted on the wall on June 13, 2012.

What are the chances I, Colin, will be ever run with the bulls or participate in a corraleja. ZERO! Fuck with the bull, you get the horns.

More on Colombian Bullfighting

As Mike Ceaser said in regards to a Bogota ban on bullfighting:

And what will happen to the handsome and historic bullfighting plaza, with its Moorish architecture? Even now, the plaza sits empty, except for young bullfighters training for a future which may never come, for nine or ten months of the year.

The handsome building, located in the heart of the city, would be great for lots of uses – but hopefully not fast food restaurants.

Indeed, the Plaza de toros de Santamaria is a Bogota landmark. What would become of this beautiful building? Here are some of my pics of the architecture. Also on display is the social class of those in attendance (Johnny Walker Black, not Red).

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Note the apartment buildings overlooking the bullring. Surefire way to be bad-ass: throw rooftop parties overlooking bullfights in Bogota.

19 Responses to “Bullfighting in Bogota, Colombia”

The bull in the first video looks worn out by the time it starts. I suspect a bullfight fan would rate that as a bad fight.

Spanish culture has a streak of violence and cruelty not quite comprehensible to outsiders. I suspect it comes from the Arab invasion and Reconquista, hundreds of years of war where “going medieval” was not an expression.

I think Colombia needs to deal more with violence and cruelty towards people before worrying about bulls. A guy like Petro talking with a straight face about the evil of violence and cruelty is a little rich, considering he owes his whole political career to it.

I’ve been to bullfights in Spain, France and Colombia (Cali). I’ve run with the bulls through the streets of Pamplona at San Fermines (watched a dude gored and bleed out on the cobblestones the day before I ran). This is an entertaining writeup about the corrida, as it gets into the blood and death of it, but that is only the surface. it’s a ritual and there is a lot of emotion to it if you are lucky enough to see a good matador with a good bull. Unfortunately, that is very rare. Usually the matador is a coward and/or the bull is bad (meaning hesitant or not straight charging and unpredictable). What you then get is a bunch of guys stabbing at the poor animal until its dead, the toreros afraid to ever get too close and execute any of the passes with cape or muleta that create the emotion and beauty. You need to see a lot of bullfights before you see a good one.

The corrida is a complex thing but here are a few notes:

-The picadors and bandilleros are working the neck muscle of the bull so that his head is gradually lowered. While it is important not to tire the bull by too much pic-ing (that would be cheating, drawing much whistling from the aficionados) if the bull can raise its head it poses a mortal threat to the torero when he goes in over the horns to place the sword between the bull‘s shoulder blades.

-Without blindfolds those horses would go batshit nuts just seeing the bull. Despite the padding, getting rammed by the bull is like being nailed by a Volkswagen. In fact, they didn’t used to have padding on the horses pre-1930s and the animals would be disemboweled right in the ring. Then they’d have their intestines packed back in along with a lot of sawdust too, and sewed back up and sent back out for more pic-ing.

-in that first bandillero photo you can actually see a form of cheating, something those with aficion would immediately remark upon. Note the movement of the pink cape. By flicking the cape that guy is drawing the bull’s attention from the bandillero as he places the darts in the bull, making the bandillero safer. Maybe in Bogota you can get away with this but never in Madrid.

-there’s no room in a comment for any of this but it would be helpful to describe the different passes of the faena as well as the 3 part structure of the corrida. Just read Death in the Afternoon by Hemingway. You can get it all there.

Dave

14. Jun, 2012

I’m a bit surprised that you didn’t get a chance to see a bulfight in Arequipa. It is a whole different experience than the one you got in Bogota. I went to one with my wife an her family.
It was on some farm land with bleachers set up for the crowd. It really wasn’t all that exciting. The bulls required some prodding by their owners to get the bulls to fight each other. The winning bull was the one who didn’t turn tail and bitch out. My wife’s brother fought his champion bull that day and was well known. He was able to get us spots down on the field to watch the event. Its was pretty cool. Then someone broke out a bottle of whiskey which ended up getting passed around and we all got shit faced.

Anonymous

15. Jun, 2012

I accidentally voted to be killed in slaughterhouse. I would die fighting. Take away that vote if you can,

eh bloody idiots animal rights yeah we dont even take care of out own kind and we are worried about animals that are in danger of becoming extinct and violence there is NO Colombian that can say anything on that note just set up a damn good sniper and let him have fun then we can talk about violence you animal rights ppl are pure idiots

Jay

15. Jun, 2012

ya bud you might want to drop that comment and let me start over had a lil to drink

Jimmy

16. Jun, 2012

Interesting that Colin comments on the silence in the stadium after the bull is killed.

In the aftermath of a bad accident at an automobile race there is an unnerving silence. They say it is because death is in the air. The same thing happens when an American Football player is badly injured, and the fans are thinking, paralysis. . Bitter rivalries are forgotten about while the fans say a silent prayer.

Consider the idea that an animal’s mind never progresses past that of a 5 year old human. They are like children. Our responsibility is to look after them, and when they have to die, it should be with the least pain and tourture possible. More than 9,000 animals die this way every year. Let’s put an end to it.﻿ Personally, I will avoid all Columbian products in protest and hope others join in this economic boycott until this barbarism is ended. There must be something better to do on a sunny day than tourture an animal to death.

Paul

03. Jun, 2014

The problem with humans is that we always see everything from “our” point of view, never the point of view of the other who is being tortured and made to suffer for fun.

To delight in the suffering of another is one of the lowest traits of humanity. To justify such activity by suggesting that people who don’t agree with you should take up another supposedly more important cause instead is also pathetic and distracting.

I for one hope that aliens do come and wipe us out because we are an evil race of self important creatures who believe we have the right to control and dominate this planet and it’s inhabitants at will.

Maybe one day we will find out the error of our ways as we seem to be doing a pretty good job of planetary self destruction without even realising it.

Diego

03. Jun, 2014

Not a fair fight! Some facts:
Handlers weaken the bulls for days before the bullfight.
They put laxatives in the food and heavy sandbags on his back.
They file horns down to the quick and they drug the bulls.
In the ring they drive lances into his back and neck muscles so he can’t lift his head.
By the time the “Matador” appears the bull is weak from blood loss and dizzy from being chased in circles.
The horses used are old and often drugged.
Wet newspaper is stuffed in there ears and there vocal chords are cut so the audience will not hear their cries when gored by the bull.
The horses wear long blankets to hide there entrails which spill out when they are gored and disembowelled.

If you support bullfighting then you are a low down uncicilised pathetic excuse for a “human being”. Good luck trying to evolve

Bullfighting is not a fight at all, but a systematic torture-killing that pits a gang of armed thugs wielding razor-sharp barbed spikes, spears, swords and daggers (these weapons are designed to inflict intense pain and cause massive blood loss to weaken the animal) against a lone, terrified; confused; fatally disabled; wounded animal.

It’s a sickening economic industry based on HORRIFYING victimization; sadistic abuse; extreme cruelty and mutilation and torture of bulls (and horses) during the cruel exhibitions of bullfights (which are barbaric ‘blood fiestas’) in Spain; Portugal; France; Mexico; Colombia; Ecuador; Guatemala; Peru and Venezuela (in which the ‘Majority’ of the native people are campaigning for Total Bullfight ‘ABOLISHMENT’).

*The Bull:
Handlers weaken and cripple the bull for days before the bullfight:
They starve him; give him laxatives and deny him water, or they put massive doses of sulphates (epsom salts) in his water to induce severe diarrhea, intestinal pain and subsequent lack of coordination in the ring. He is beaten with heavy sandbags on his back; kidneys and testicles. He is wedged into a tiny corral and drugged to make him docile. Up to four inches of horn is painfully hacked off with a saw down to the tender quick (that bleeds) to interfere with his ability to navigate; the mutilated stump rounded off with a rasp and smeared with black grease; his hooves are burned with turpentine so that he cannot lay down; he is locked-up in total darkness for days while being harassed and tormented.

They blind him with vaseline and salt rubbed into his eyes and drug him; they stuff his ears so that he cannot hear; they stuff his nostrils so that he cannot breath. Just before he enters the ring he is harpooned/stabbed in the back with a sharp; steel ‘breeder’s mark.’ In the ring, they drive razor-sharp lances and harpoons into his back and neck muscles so he can’t lift his head. By the time the matador appears, the bull is weak from blood loss and dizzy from being chased in circles.

*The Horses:
The horses used in bullfights as ‘living walls’ are old and drugged. Wet newspaper is stuffed in their ears so that they will not hear the approaching bull and run away; their vocal cords are cut so the audience will not hear their cries. They wear long blankets to hide their entrails, which spill out when they are gored and disemboweled by the tortured; agonizing bull (who has been deceived into thinking that the horse is causing his pain, instead of the ‘wicked human’ riding the horse).

It’s no fun to see an innocent, crazed animal tortured before a screaming crowd of people, who should be hanging their heads in shame. Even if you leave after 15 to 20 minutes, the damage has been done – money has gone to support this hellish, satanic business, which ‘decent people’ (in the bullfight countries and all over the world) are working to ‘end.’

The continuation of bullfighting depends on ‘Corrupt’ Government Subsidies and to an even Greater Extent; the ‘Ignorant Tourist’ who is unknowingly supporting this cruel industry.

Don’t be an ‘accomplice’ to this Vatican Ordered; Jesuit ‘Savagery’ by supporting it with your ‘tourist dollars.’

So-called *’bloodless/cruelty-free’ bullfights (‘corridas incruenta’) are practiced in the United States, where bulls are wedged into a tiny corral and mutilated (up to four inches of horn is hacked off with a saw down to the tender quick (which bleeds) to interfere with his ability to navigate); locked-up in total darkness for days and teased and harassed.

Teased; terrified; confused and tormented, only to be killed once outside the arena in a Mexican bullfight; a slaughterhouse or elsewhere.

In these events bullfighters perform who ‘mutilate; torture and kill’ many bulls during regular ‘bloody’ bullfights.

‘Bloody or bloodless,’ bullfighting is a ‘senseless, degrading’ spectacle that has no place in a ‘civilized’ society.

Bullfighting: It’s not ART; it’s not CULTURE; it’s not SPORT; it’s ‘TORTURE’ (ask the Majority of the people in the bullfighting. predominately “Catholic” countries of Spain; Portugal; France; Mexico; Colombia; Ecuador; Guatemala; Peru and Venezuela who know, and are working on, and passing BANS and ABOLITION of bullfights).

A Tradition of Cruelty
All the bulls that run on the streets of Pamplona during the ‘Running of the Bulls,’ from July 7th to 14th, are killed that same afternoon in a bullfight, in the name of San Fermin and his traditional ‘Fiesta.’ Torturing and killing a defenseless animal should not be celebrated as tradition. People have always tried to use tradition to justify horrible things, such as child labour and slavery. But tradition doesn’t make something right. Bullfighting is a cruel blood sport that should have been relegated to the history books a long time ago. No matter what it’s history, bullfighting consists of the torture, mutilation and slaughter of animals for entertainment.

The ‘Running of the Bulls’
Bulls are bred in fields and are not accustomed to the noise of the crowd or being surrounded by people. They are prodded onto the streets with electric shocks and shouts. They run to the open area and are hit by runners with rolled up newspapers. The corners of the bulls’ route are quite sharp, and the animals often lose their footing and slide into walls, breaking bones and injuring themselves. All the bulls who slip and slide on the streets of Pamplona are running towards a bloody and horrific death in the bullring.

‘Bull Runs’ (Bullfights) are a ‘senseless, degrading’ spectacle that have no place in a ‘civilized’ society.

Help these ‘suffering’ animals – stay away from bullfights ; speak out against them; boycott companies that sponsor them, and demand that they be ‘ABOLISHED.’